Everything You Should Know Before Using Our Drivers

First of all, let’s draw our attention to file systems. File system is used to control the storage and the retrieval of the information. Without file system your information would be like a large heap lacking any order and structure. File systems separate the information into files and define how and where such files will be placed. As you have already understood, file systems are used on data storage devices, such as internal and external hard drives, USB flash drives and so on. Now you can’t imagine your life without such useful features on your computer as Space management, filenames and directories. These entire things are provided by the file systems located on your drive.

However there is no common file system designed for all computers and drives in the world. Operating systems (OS X, Windows, Linux) use their own file systems with different characteristics and no possibility of full compatibility with other types. For Windows it is FAT16 (File Allocation Table), FAT32, NTFS (New Technology File System) and Microsoft exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table). For Linux it is usually ext (Extended) family (such as ext2, ext3 and ext4). And OS X/macOS uses its own HFS (Hierarchical File Systems) or APFS (Apple File System). Each of operating systems doesn’t provide full support of the competitor’s file systems. That is why you need special soft called drivers to overcome communication barriers between differently formatted hard drives. By the way, what does the word “format” in this context mean?

Disk Formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device for initial use. There are three successive types of formatting: low-level formatting, partitioning, high-level formatting.

Low-level formatting was generally done by an operating system utility. Nowadays such method is usually carried out by the manufacturer of data storage devices. During this process the drive is separated in sectors and tracks.
While doing high-level formatting you set up an empty file system. Such types of formatting are usually fulfilled by the OS itself. However, speaking about external drives, and USB flash drives, you need to perform this operation yourself.
Partitioning is the process of writing information into blocks of a storage device or medium that allows access by an operating system (OS). Some OSs allow the device to appear as multiple devices; i.e. partitioned into multiple devices.

Our NTFS, HFS/APFS, ExtFS drivers provide full read-write access to disks or partitions formatted with other file system. Let’s consider a simple example: “I have two computers at home, PC on Windows for work and Mac for my daily activities. However, I can’t transfer files from my Mac to the external hard drive I used with my PC. Should I delete the whole data or format the disk with the help of Mac? But in this case my PC won’t let me write the data? What to do?” For such tasks our drivers are the best solution you can find for such problem. Just install the driver and you won’t ever notice any differences between disks formatted with various file systems and their communication with a computer.

Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software provides full support of Windows’s file system.
With HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software and APFS for Windows by Paragon Software you can easily access the disk formatted on Mac.
Linux File Systems for Windows by Paragon Software and extFS for Mac by Paragon Software let you work with Linux files in Windows and Mac respectively.

Please note, our systems can’t help you changing the format of files. That means, having an .exe file on your Windows you want be able to open in on your Mac or transfer it into .dmg format.

All our drivers you can find on these two websites:

http://www.paragon-software.com/
http://www.paragon-drivers.com/ – this one helps you also with choosing between different products in an easy, interactive way. You can also download a trial version of the product for just looking whether it right for you or not. You can even choose a bundle and save money on other drivers!

Let’s consider first the installation on Mac:  https://kb.paragon-software.com/article/4482

The installation for HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software on Windows is also very simple: https://kb.paragon-software.com/article/2053

It is possible to find the key after purchasing of the drive in your “MyAccount”on http://www.paragon-software.com/. Just log in using your personal data and find the product there.

To check if a newer version the app on your Mac. Go to “System Preferences”-> “NTFS for Mac”-> “Settings” -> “Check for Update Now…” or enable “Check for available updated automatically”.

To activate the program please insert your product key and serial number you got after purchasing.

You can always find a more detailed manual on our website.

The necessary information is always at your disposal.

This feature is useful only for Boot Camp and Windows Users. Please don’t activate it on your simple partitions. Otherwise it would be necessary to press “Option” and “Power” while loading and choose then Mac OS X.

After installing the driver, Mac OS X Startup Disk (a utility responsible for setting an active operating system) stops recognizing Windows installed with Boot Camp. It’s an internal problem of Mac OS X, so we can do nothing with it. As a way out, you can choose your Windows volume on the left side of the pane, and then click the Set as Startup button to start it up next time you launch the computer.